A man who has devoted his professional life to helping farmers coax more production from their cropland brought his ideas to North Dakota today.
Phil Needham moved to the US from England almost thirty years ago and began studying various methods, varieties, and crop inputs to make farming more productive.
He addressed the Mountrail County Ag Improvement summer meeting in Stanley.
The focus of his talk was taking on fusarium head blight, or scab in wheat crops.
Needham says his research has shown that focusing on the little things in growing wheat are key – even in dry years.
(Phil Needham, Needham Technologies)
“This year, just riding around this area, there are some pretty dry fields so yield potential has obviously been capped. But if these guys can get some moisture soon it’s obviously going to help a whole lot. But even in dry environments some of the basics of moisture retention and soil quality is certainly going to help even in the dry years.”
Needham says he puts on about 60 seminars on wheat yield improvement around the country each year.
